The observation of a resonance structure in the opening angle of the electron-positron pairs in the $$^{7}$$ Li(p,e $$^+$$ e $$^-$$ ) $$^{8}$$ Be reaction was claimed and interpreted as the production and subsequent decay of a hypothetical particle (X17). Similar excesses, consistent with this particle, were later observed in processes involving $$^{4}$$ He and $$^{12}$$ C nuclei with the same experimental technique. The MEG II apparatus at PSI, designed to search for the $$\mu ^+ \rightarrow \textrm{e}^+ \gamma $$ decay, can be exploited to investigate the existence of this particle and study its nature. Protons from a Cockroft–Walton accelerator, with an energy up to 1.1 MeV, were delivered on a dedicated Li-based target. The $$\gamma $$ and the e $$^{+}$$ e $$^{-}$$ pair emerging from the $$^8\textrm{Be}^*$$ transitions were studied with calorimeters and a spectrometer, featuring a broader angular acceptance than previous experiments. We present in this paper the analysis of a four-week data-taking in 2023 with a beam energy of 1080 keV, resulting in the excitation of two different resonances with Q-value 17.6 and 18.1 MeV. No significant signal was found, and limits at 90% C.L. on the branching ratios (relative to the $$\gamma $$ emission) of the two resonances to X17 were set, $$R_{17.6} <{1.8}\,\times \,10^{-6}$$ and $$R_{18.1} < {1.2}\,\times \,10^{-5}$$ in the mass range between $${16.5}\hbox { MeV}/\hbox {c}^{2}$$ and $${17.1}\hbox { MeV}/\hbox {c}^{2}$$ .

Russia

K. Afanaciev

Italy

A. Baldini

Japan

S. Ban

H. Benmansour

G. Boca

P. Cattaneo

G. Cavoto

F. Cei

M. Chiappini

A. Corvaglia

Switzerland

G. Maso

A. Bari

M. Gerone

L. Barusso

M. Francesconi

L. Galli

G. Gallucci

F. Gatti

L. Gerritzen

F. Grancagnolo

E. Grandoni

M. Grassi

D. Grigoriev

M. Hildebrandt

United Kingdom

F. Ignatov

F. Ikeda

T. Iwamoto

S. Karpov

P. Kettle

N. Khomutov

A. Kolesnikov

N. Kravchuk

V. Krylov

N. Kuchinskiy

F. Leonetti

W. Li

V. Malyshev

A. Matsushita

M. Meucci

S. Mihara

United States

W. Molzon

T. Mori

D. Nicolò

H. Nishiguchi

A. Ochi

W. Ootani

A. Oya

D. Palo

M. Panareo

A. Papa

V. Pettinacci

A. Popov

F. Renga

S. Ritt

M. Rossella

A. Rozhdestvensky

S. Scarpellini

P. Schwendimann

G. Signorelli

M. Takahashi

Y. Uchiyama

A. Venturini

B. Vitali

C. Voena

K. Yamamoto

R. Yokota

T. Yonemoto

Search for the X17 particle in $$^{7}\textrm{Li}(\textrm{p},\textrm{e}^+ \textrm{e}^{-}) ^{8}\textrm{Be}$$ processes with the MEG II detector

A study of the charmless baryonic decays $$ {B}_{(s)}^0\to {K}^0p\overline{p} $$ is presented, where $$ {B}_{(s)}^0 $$ denotes either a $\textit{B}$ or a $$ {B}_s^0 $$ meson. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb . The decay $$ {B}_s^0\to {K}^0p\overline{p} $$ is observed for the first time, with a measured branching fraction of (9$\textit{.}$14 $\textit{±}$ 1$\textit{.}$69 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$90 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$33 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$20) $\textit{×}$ 10 and a significance of 5.6$\textit{σ}$. The uncertainties respectively account for statistical and systematic contributions, the precision of the branching fraction of the normalisation channel $\textit{B}$ $\textit{→ K}$ $\textit{π}$ $\textit{π}$ and the fragmentation fraction ratio $\textit{f}$ $\textit{/f}$ . The branching fraction determined for $$ {B}^0\to {K}^0p\overline{p} $$ is (2$\textit{.}$82 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$08 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$12 $\textit{±}$ 0$\textit{.}$10) $\textit{×}$ 10 , which is the most precise measurement to date.

Netherlands

R. Aaij

A. Abdelmotteleb

C. Abellan Beteta

F. Abudinén

T. Ackernley

A. Adefisoye

Spain

B. Adeva

M. Adinolfi

Sweden

P. Adlarson

France

C. Agapopoulou

C. Aidala

Z. Ajaltouni

S. Akar

K. Akiba

P. Albicocco

Germany

J. Albrecht

F. Alessio

Z. Aliouche

P. Alvarez Cartelle

R. Amalric

Brazil

S. Amato

J. Amey

Y. Amhis

China

L. An

L. Anderlini

M. Andersson

A. Andreianov

P. Andreola

M. Andreotti

D. Andreou

A. Anelli

D. Ao

F. Archilli

M. Argenton

Costa Rica

S. Arguedas Cuendis

A. Artamonov

M. Artuso

E. Aslanides

R. Ataíde Da Silva

M. Atzeni

B. Audurier

D. Bacher

I. Bachiller Perea

S. Bachmann

M. Bachmayer

J. Back

P. Baladron Rodriguez

V. Balagura

A. Balboni

W. Baldini

L. Balzani

H. Bao

J. Baptista de Souza Leite

C. Barbero Pretel

M. Barbetti

I. Barbosa

R. Barlow

M. Barnyakov

S. Barsuk

W. Barter

J. Bartz

Poland

S. Bashir

B. Batsukh

P. Battista

A. Bay

A. Beck

M. Becker

F. Bedeschi

I. Bediaga

N. Behling

S. Belin

K. Belous

I. Belov

I. Belyaev

G. Benane

G. Bencivenni

E. Ben-Haim

A. Berezhnoy

R. Bernet

S. Bernet Andres

A. Bertolin

C. Betancourt

F. Betti

J. Bex

Ia. Bezshyiko

Ukraine

O. Bezshyyko

J. Bhom

M. Bieker

N. Biesuz

P. Billoir

A. Biolchini

M. Birch

F. Bishop

A. Bitadze

A. Bizzeti

T. Blake

F. Blanc

J. Blank

S. Blusk

V. Bocharnikov

Observation of the decay $$ {B}_s^0\to {K}^0p\overline{p} $$ and measurement of the $$ {B}_{(s)}^0\to {K}^0p\overline{p} $$ branching fractions

<p>A search for cascade decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos using final states characterized by three leptons (electrons or muons) and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on a dataset with <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mn>140</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><msup><mi>fb</mi><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></math> of proton-proton (<i>pp</i>) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msqrt><mi>s</mi></msqrt><mo>=</mo><mn>13</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>TeV</mi></math> recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. This paper focuses on a supersymmetric scenario that is motivated by the muon anomalous magnetic moment observation, dark-mattter relic density abundance, and electroweak naturalness. A mass spectrum involving light Higgsinos and heavier sleptons with a bino at intermediate mass is targeted. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. This search enables us to place stringent constraints on this model, excluding at the 95% confidence level charged slepton and sneutrino masses up to 450 GeV when assuming a lightest neutralino mass of 100 GeV and mass-degenerate selectrons, smuons and sneutrinos.</p>

G. Aad

Norway

E. Aakvaag

B. Abbott

United Arab Emirates

S. Abdelhameed

K. Abeling

N.J. Abicht

S.H. Abidi

M. Aboelela

Morocco

A. Aboulhorma

Israel

H. Abramowicz

Search for cascade decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos in final states with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>p</mi><mi>p</mi></math> collisions at <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><msqrt><mi>s</mi></msqrt><mo>=</mo><mn>13</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>TeV</mi></math> with the ATLAS detector